Old-fashioned Super Soft Molasses Cookies are a homemade classic treat packed with bold flavors of molasses, ginger, and cinnamon in each bite. They’re soft and chewy on the inside, with a crackly top rolled in sugar. They’re a fall and holiday favorite recipe that’s the perfect addition to any cookie swap!
Why you’ll love this recipe
One of my all-time favorite cookie recipes are these molasses cookies! They are seriously soft and chewy, perfectly flavored with molasses, ginger, and cinnamon, and lightly rolled in granulated sugar for a sweet crunch!
They’re an easy-to-make holiday favorite that stays soft for days and tastes fantastic! Add them to your must-make holiday baking list and don’t forget to include them in your next cookie swap!
If you love this recipe, check out my Chocolate Shortbread, Holiday Slice and Bake Cookies, and Classic Spritz Cookies, which would also be great for holiday cookie tins!
Table of Contents
Where Does Molasses Come From?
Molasses is commonly used as a sweetener in baking, cooking, coffee, or oatmeal and comes from either sugar cane or sugar beets, where it’s boiled down to syrup. After removing the sugar crystals, what’s left is the dark molasses!
Molasses comes in a variety of flavors, including light/mild, full/dark, and blackstrap. Light/mild is the lightest and sweetest of the three, followed by full/dark, which is thicker and has a stronger flavor (great for recipes like this!). Blackstrap is the thickest of the three and has no sweetness. You’ll typically see blackstrap molasses used in savory dishes.
Ingredients Needed
The ingredients shown in the image below are used to make these chewy ginger molasses cookies. Items noted in the bulleted list are key ingredients that need more explanation.
- Ground Spices. Using ground cinnamon, ground cloves, and ground ginger helps round out the flavors in these molasses cookies. I love using ground Vietnamese cinnamon from King Arthur, but honestly any brand will work fine.
- Full Flavor Molasses. The molasses brand I like is Brer Rabbit. If you don’t have full-flavor molasses, you can use light or dark flavor, but I don’t recommend blackstrap, as it has no sweetness.
- Vegetable Oil. You can also use coconut oil. I recommend using Carrington Farms coconut cooking oil (unflavored). While I didn’t test the recipe with this substitute, you can also use melted, cooled butter (1:1 ratio) in place of vegetable oil.
- Granulated Sugar. Used in the molasses cookie recipe and also for rolling the cookie.
For quantities and instructions, please see the recipe card below.
How to Make Soft and Chewy Molasses Sugar Cookies
Here is a brief overview of how to make this soft molasses cookie recipe!
- Whisk the dry ingredients together. This includes all-purpose flour, ground cloves, ground ginger, cinnamon, and salt.
- Mix the wet ingredients together. Start with vegetable oil and granulated sugar. Next, add the full-flavored molasses and egg.
- Combine the dry and wet ingredients. Unless the recipe specifies otherwise, always add the dry ingredients to the wet. Mix the cookie dough together until just combined. The cookie dough will be a thin to medium consistency.
- Chill the dough. Chill for at least 2 hours, or until you can form the dough into balls. Cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap.
- Roll and Coat. Roll the molasses cookie dough into 1-inch balls, then roll in a small bowl of granulated sugar. You only need about 1/2 cup to coat all 36 cookies this recipe yields.
- Bake, then Cool. Bake for 8-10 minutes at 375ºF. Mine seem to bake perfectly right at the 8-minute mark. Your cookies should have a nice, sparkling crinkle top with golden-brown edges. Let the cookies cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring them to the wire cooling rack.
Helpful Tips
- Measuring sticky molasses. Measuring sticky ingredients can be tricky, so I suggest lightly spraying the inside of a measuring cup with baking spray. This will help the molasses slide out more easily when you’re pouring it into the mixer.
- Don’t skip chilling the dough. I recommend at least 2 hours of dough chilling or until you can easily form the dough into 1-inch balls. If they haven’t properly chilled, things can get pretty messy.
- Use a cookie scoop. For more consistently sized cookies, use a 1-tablespoon-sized cookie scoop. A regular spoon will work fine, too.
- Shape the cookies. This is totally optional, but if your cookies come out a little flatter than you like or you’d like them to be about the same size, you can shape them! Check out my Salted Brownie Cookies recipe to learn how to shape them!
Recipe FAQs
If you don’t typically keep ground cloves on hand, you can use ground nutmeg.
Yes! Follow the recipe instructions up to the point where you chill the molasses cookie dough. Roll the cookie dough into 1-inch balls, but skip rolling them in the granulated sugar. Place them onto a parchment paper- or wax paper-lined baking sheet and freeze until firm. Remove from the freezer and place the frozen cookie dough balls into a well-sealed freezer bag. Molasses cookie dough balls will keep for up to 3 months in the freezer. When ready to bake, add 1-2 minutes to your baking time.
If you tried this Super Soft Molasses Cookies recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know what you thought in the 📝 comments below. Thanks for visiting!
Super Soft Molasses Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups All-Purpose Flour
- 1/2 tsp Ground Cloves
- 1/2 tsp Ground Ginger
- 2 tsp Baking Soda
- 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 3/4 cup Vegetable Oil
- 1 cup Granulated Sugar, plus extra for rolling cookie dough balls in
- 1/4 cup Full Flavor Molasses, I used the Brer Rabbit brand
- 1 Large Egg, room temperature
Instructions
- Whisk together the all-purpose flour, ground cloves, ground ginger, baking soda, ground cinnamon, and salt. Set to the side.2 cups All-Purpose Flour, 1/2 tsp Ground Cloves, 1/2 tsp Ground Ginger, 2 tsp Baking Soda, 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon, 1/2 tsp Salt
- Using your hand mixer or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the vegetable oil and granulated sugar together on medium-high speed until well blended. Add in the full flavor molasses and egg.3/4 cup Vegetable Oil, 1 cup Granulated Sugar, 1/4 cup Full Flavor Molasses, 1 Large Egg
- Switching the mixer speed to low, gradually add in the whisked dry ingredients until just combined.
- Cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate the molasses cookie dough for a minimum of 2 hours (or until it's easy to shape).
- Once the cookie dough has chilled, adjust the oven rack to the 2nd level position (just above center) and preheat the oven to 375ºF. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.
- Using a spoon or a 1 tablespoon size cookie scoop, form 1 inch size cookie dough balls. Roll each one in a small bowl of granulated sugar and place on the lined baking sheet roughly 2 inches apart.
- Bake cookies for 8-10 minutes at 375ºF. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely. The cookies will be puffy at first, but will flatten as they cool.
- Molasses cookies can be kept stored in an airtight container for up to a week at room temperature. They'll stay soft too!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information provided above is an estimate only and will vary based on specific ingredients used. See Nutritional Disclaimer for more info.
More Holiday Cookie Recipes!
I made these tonight, following the recipe exactly, and they are just okay. The Molasses flavor was a little too strong.
Best cookies ever…hubby loved them.
Thank you so much for making them!
Do these freeze well after being baked?
I’m sorry, I can’t speak for how they freeze well after being baked. I’ve only frozen the cookie dough into cookie dough balls.
I did not change a thing and absolutely loved them. They’re a keeper. Thank you.
Thank you so much for making them!
Love this recipe they were so easy to make. My husband said these cookies were by far better than store bought. This is definitely a five star recipe. Thanks for sharing.
Just made these for the first time and will never try a different recipe. I actually just joined Instagram so I could comment. The edges are crispy with a soft center and literally melt in your mouth. I found if you measure the oil first you can use the same measuring cup for the molasses and every drop comes out! No need to spray.
These are the tastiest cookies I’ve ever made! I had to play with the baking time a little. The first batch I tried 10 minutes and they were pretty solid but they were perfect at 7.5-8 minutes after the resting time!
I’m so happy you love these cookies! Thank you for making them!
My son in the Navy requested soft molasses cookies and I reviewed a bunch of different ones. I made them with a couple of changes. I used 1/2 cup oil and 1/4 unsalted butter. I also used 1/2 granulated sugar and 1/2 cup light brown sugar. I rolled them in raw sugar for extra crunch on the outside. They were amazing! Thank you!
Thank you so much for making them!
Hello! I have a couple quick questions: How long can these stay in the fridge before baking? I know it says at least 2 hours or overnight, but can I mix them up in advance (like 1-2 days) and leave them in the fridge until I’m ready to bake? If not, what would you say is the max they’ll be good in the fridge before baking? Also, what is the shelf life after they’re baked? Thank you!
Hi! If you plan to make them a few days in advance, I recommend freezing the cookie dough instead. In the blog post, I have a section that gives instructions on how to do this. This way, when you’re ready, all you would have to do is bake them! And for shelf life, the molasses cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to a week at room temperature. They’ll stay soft as well, which is nice. Happy baking!
I just made these and they turned out fantastic! Ive made a recipe similar to this using butter but I always forget to leave the butter out to come to temp so i love that this recipe uses vegetable oil, makes it easy to be prepared to bake on a whim 👍🏼
These taste good, but we’re crispy and nowhere near soft. I must have baked too long.
Hi Sue, it does sound like you baked them a little too long because they should be pretty soft. You could also try baking them on the next rack down to see if that helps. I’m glad they still tasted good though!
Great recipe! So tasty and easy to make.
I added some chopped up glacé ginger to the dough mixture which added some extra ginger flavour.